By JASON STRICKLAND (digitalBURG) – The 2013 season left the Mules golf team with a Central/Midwest Super Regional championship and a 15^th-place finish at the national championships on Wednesday in Hershey, Pa., but the Mules feel like they left something on the table.
“All-in-all it probably wasn’t a great performance for us,” said head coach Tim Poe. “I would say we definitely had some highlights during the week and had some good play from certain guys, but overall it definitely wasn’t our best performance.”
Freshman Robby Hughey, who won the individual title at the super regional and finished 93^rd at nationals, said the team underperformed for how prepared they were. He added that he let the nerves get to him.
“I just got a little distracted, and probably got a little nervous as far as the tournament stage goes,” Hughey said.
Hughey is one of three Mule freshmen who competed in the tournament, and the other two members were sophomores.
“I felt like we just wanted to go prove something,” sophomore Sam Migdal said. “But I guess we let it get to our heads a little bit.”
Migdal tied for 57^th, and was second among Mules. Freshman Travis Mays tied for 33^rd, which was the best on the team.
Sophomore Cy Moritz was the lone Mule with experience at this event, and he finished tied for 59^th. Redshirt freshman Teddy Jones finished in a tie for 76^th, and Hughey rounded out the Mules’ lineup with his 93^rd place finish.
The Mules were in 17^th out of 20 teams after Monday’s first round, and then climbed to 12^th after Tuesday’s second round, but fell to 15^th following round three.
“I think the second day we just did a much better job of hitting fairways,” Poe said. “In the third round, we started off the first three or four holes pretty good and it looked like we were going to mount a little run there, and then toward the end of that first nine the wheels just kind of fell off and we stopped doing what we’ve been doing the second day and the early part of the third day.”
Poe said the team may have gotten too aggressive in the third round.
“On the last day, if you kind of start playing bad, you start taking risks that you normally wouldn’t,” he said. “And I’m sure that’s what happened. In the end, the guys were just trying too hard to make birdies and it just wasn’t happening.”
Wednesday was the final day of stroke play, and Thursday marked the first day of match play. The top eight teams qualified for the match play portion.
Barry University defeated Lynn University in the finals on Friday to claim its second national title.
Poe said participating in this tournament will help these young players later on in their careers.
“I think the experience these five gained the past two or three weeks in the conference and regionals and nationals is going to go a long way to help with our confidence,” he said. “And hopefully it’s a little bit of a motivation to figure out what it takes to play at this level and what it takes to play in championship golf.”
Hughey said they should make it back to nationals next season.
“We are definitely in a good position for making it back next year,” he said. “With how young our team is, we have a good number of recruits coming in next year that might be able to contribute to our program. As far as myself goes, I feel like my game is in the position it needs to be in order to help my team get back to where we want to be and compete for a national championship next year.”